The Study of Society

by zunguzungu

From two posts at Robert Paul Wolff’s blog, on the Social Studies conference at Harvard and Marty Peretz:

This was a gathering of more than four hundred former and present Social Studies majors — possibly the largest assemblage of sophisticated social theorists since the last garden party of the Frankfort School for Social Research. These are people who think nothing of discerning the deeper ideological meaning in Afghan popular music or Tibetan architecture, or teasing out the epistemological filiations between Foucault and Montesquieu. And yet, confronted at their own conference by a massive protest, the best they could come up with was “Marty is a nice guy.”

…Programs like Social Studies and STPEC have it as their mission to teach students how to understand the socio-economic realities that lie beneath the often beguiling and glittering surface appearances the social world presents to us. What is more, the people who run Social Studies and STPEC [as well as the only person who was in at the founding of both of them — namely me] hope that students will fight in their lives for justice and equality, using what they have learned to make them more effective. But we learn how to act courageously and effectively not only by mastering texts and grasping concepts — accomplishments that are essential, I believe — but also by coming to see how these intellectual skills are inseparably linked to traits of character — courage, honesty, integrity.

Perhaps I could learn multivariate calculus from Marty Peretz, however unpleasant an experience that might be. But I could not learn social theory from Marty Peretz, because who he is would interfere fatally with what he was supposedly teaching me. And what is more, I could not learn social theory from someone who would make excuses for Marty Peretz as “a wonderful teacher.” So, whatever generations of Social Studies students may think, and however famous Michael Walzer may be, they were not learning how to be fighters for social justice from him. Nor could I learn to be a fighter for social justice from a program that, when the money was dangled, was willing to honor the likes of Peretz.

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2 Comments to “The Study of Society”

Talk of the “Israeli Lobby” immediately puts to mind that of the Dreyfuss Affair. Jews reoaansbly see it as another attempt to demonize them and catch them in a no-win situation.Deeply assimilated Jews get hauled off to the ovens, as was the case in France, Germany, most of occupied Europe. Jews are the one group that can never be accepted and never will be accepted. In fact, it was the Dreyfuss affair and various anti-Semitic goings on that convinced formerly assimilationist and nationalist Theodor Herzl that Zionism was the only possible solution because Jews would NEVER be accepted in any country but their own.The reaction of Europe, Latin America, and the Asian nations as well as the Middle East and Europe, to Israel, being the only nation censured for “human rights violations’ while Sudan, Burma, Congo, Cuba, North Korea, and others go unrebuked serves to make that case further, in the modern era.Even more of a concern, is the growing anti-Semitism among the Left in alliance with the “Father Coughlin” right such as Pat Buchanon, noted anti-Semite and Hitler admirer.Jews tend to have a lot of relatives, distant or otherwise, in Israel. They wish to have the ability to accept them into the US in the case of a catastrophe, instead of having them end up in ovens, JUST LIKE LAST TIME.The US refused admittance of Jews, most of them wealthy and educated, fleeing the Nazi holocaust. The St. Louis being a good example.Jews have good historical and recent reasons to equate “Israeli Lobby” (which in practical terms is overwhelmed by the tidal wave of Saudi money that hires former Presidents like Clinton) as an attempt to prevent their relatives from seeking safety and instead make sure they are wiped out. Since it happened the last time, within living memory.Morever, the Pat Buchanon idiots who blame “the Jews” on Jihad have it all wrong, as usual letting their innate anti-Semitism do their thinking (they hate Jews more than they love their country, something that applies not only to Buchanon, but also to Coughlin and Lindbergh back in the day).Jihad is all about building an exile Army and militia, to overthrow whatever government. Americans, Soviets, who ever, it does not matter as long as they are infidels and weak targets who don’t fight back. Modern technology, being a commodity, makes Western technological dominance a thing of the past.Evangelicals support Israel (Palin has an Israeli flag in her office) because they face the same enemy: Islam. Evangelicals are active in missionary activities in Africa, where Islam seeks to erase Christianity by killing as many Christians as possible, and enslaving the rest. Evangelicals are active now as they were before in African anti-Slavery activities, the Sudan being a hotbed of Islamic slavery of Christian captives.In addition, in places like the Philippines and other places like Europe where Muslims are in appreciable numbers, Christians face beheading (three Christian schoolgirls beheaded in Indonesia) and such by Muslims as a routine matter. Evangelicals know their enemy and their one ally against the enemy. THIS more than theology explains Evangelical support for Israel.Carter is a well-known anti-Semite and Evangelical. Carter pushed for a “comprehshensive” peace plan that basically called for dismantling Israel and was furious when Sadat made his own deal. He’s since accussed Israel of being the worst human rights violator on the planet, worse than Burma, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, Cuba, Congo, or North Korea. Only willful anti-Semitism can explain that, a feature of older Evangelicals.What did in Freeman of course was Pelosi wanting him gone. Because her Chinese money-men thought he was too much under the Cronies control and wanted US influence to provide some check (and like Jews, safety lines of emergency emmigration in case of danger) on the Chinese crony leadership.

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